Tame the deficit through defense cuts

First, DoD must reduce its over-reliance on outside contractors. The department now spends more than $140 billion on outside contractors, who perform functions that department personnel are capable of doing. Though Gates has begun to address this with his efficiency initiative — proposing a 10 percent reduction from the $4.3 billion in service support contracts — we can go further, with deeper cuts. Better oversight and accountability controls over these contractors also are desperately needed to reduce rampant fraud and inefficiency.

Second, the Defense Department must improve interagency communications to end wasteful spending on duplicative programs that supply the same information and intelligence. In fiscal 2012, DoD is requesting more than $2 billion for cyber programs. The same year, the Department of Homeland Security is seeking $459 million for its own cyber defense programs. While these departments focus on different networks, here are vast opportunities for savings through collaboration and information sharing where their goals intersect.

Third, no examination of the defense budget is complete without a review of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are spending nearly $3 billion a week on this. Security costs money, but we must be strategically wise in where we spend our limited defense dollars. The time has come for a much quicker withdrawal from Afghanistan than the president proposed.

The United States cannot support a costly protracted military conflict while clawing our way out of the worst recession since the Great Depression and cutting billions from our children’s education and critical social services. Between fiscal 2002 and fiscal 2011, we spent more than $26 billion training and equipping the Afghan National Army (about $3,000 per soldier, according to the Government Accountability Office), while our workers faced layoffs and reduced health care benefits, and our children faced lower-quality education.

Last week, I joined Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) in sponsoring an amendment to H.R. 1 that would decrease defense spending to 2008 levels.

This decrease could save us about $36 billion in the next year, and $182 billion over the next five years. Though the amendment did not pass, it demonstrated that many of us believe deficit reduction does not end at nonmilitary issues — but must start with the biggest spender of taxpayers’ money.

Our country can no longer afford to give the Defense Department a blank check. Excessive military spending does not make us more secure. We need to have a serious discussion in Congress about responsible reductions in military spending. Hopefully, the debate surrounding the fiscal 2012 budget can start this conversation.

Deficit reduction is, as Gates keenly observed, a national security issue of the highest importance. We must be firmly committed to both security and restoring the fiscal integrity of this nation. The time for action is now.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) serves on the House Armed Services Committee and is the ranking member on the Strategic Forces Subcommittee. She also serves on the Homeland Security and the Joint Economic committees.